After all, one of the best things about a Hitman game is the freedom to enjoy what is essentially an assassination sandbox, attempting to complete challenges or explore destinations. (I would not recommend this, but tested to see if it would allow me to flit between modes. While this is efficient, it is a little jarring to head to the Campaign page and see all of the story cutscenes and major missions laid out there in their little cubes, with someone able to jump through them in any order. Going into the other spaces similarly divides things up.
It retains the structure of the episodic release, from locations each being downloaded separately, When you load up the game, you start with a Featured screen that doles things like Story, Ghost Mode, the current Elusive Target, Sniper Assassin, Contracts Mode, Patch Notes, and Load Game, as though you were at a Windows 10 PC with various buttons to press. However, this does not mean it is like Hitman: Codename 47 or Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. Everything is available together at launch. Unlike 2016’s Hitman, 2018’s Hitman 2 is not episodic. It is something evident when you first download and look through Hitman 2. This isn’t bad, especially if you come to a Hitman game to pick at various locations and take on specific contracts, but it might throw some people off. It does what it is supposed to do well and builds off of 2016’s episodic Hitman, but some design decisions can leave things feeling off. When you go through an adventure that doesn’t have a same sense of consistency and connection, it can leave an experience feeling “off” even when everything else works. Games and stories need proper transitions, leading from one scenario to the next and making everything you are doing in this virtual world feel plausible in the moment.